Resilience in agriculture relies on creating soil. Every gram of soil organic matter (SOM) holds 8 grams of water. By rotationally grazing our animals around our farm we have since 2011 (which is when we started taking soil samples) increased our SOM by 42%. Please note that the farm average is still 1.87%, which is marginally better than beach sand.

The underlying principle is that all the animals and their housing move regularly. The cattle are moved 4 times per day. The broilers and layers every day and the pigs once they have completely trashed an area which takes about 5 days. This ensures that the farm is neither overgrazed or overfertilised. Whether the conventional farming operation is caged or so called “free range” the housing is fixed and so the animals are under constant disease pressure as they live with their manure.

This picture explains why the vegan and vegetarian option is defeatist. Only animals managed properly, in this case broiler chickens, can regenerate soil. The dark green strips are where previous batches of chickens grazed in their enclosures and in the background the paler grass indicates that they have not grazed their yet. Sustainability is also a defeatist belief. Regenerative agriculture is the only option that we have left if we are to survive as a species for it is agriculture that is destroying the planet.

Above is a chicken we spatchcocked, marinated with herbs from the garden and enjoyed on the farm on which it was raised. Tasting our produce is one of the compulsory perks of the job.

If you don’t want to see any of the photos below and simply want our protocol then click here. It has the following sections. Daily tasks, additional tasks, materials sheet and vaccination program.

The chicks on day 1. Note the feeders, drinkers and heating lamp.

Our broilers operation is simple. We get the birds as day old chicks. We raise them inside a building for 3 weeks and then outside on the pastures for 4 weeks. Thereafter they go for slaughter in Hopefield.

The yellow on the beak at 11 o’clock is the yolk left from hatching out of the egg this morning.

The photos above are of a batch of 225 day olds on the day they hatched. We are lucky to have access to Ross chickens. We tried Cobb a long time ago and they were not as tough outside.

The greatest help you can be to your day olds is get them vaccinated and then fed and watered as soon as possible after hatching. More on our vaccination program in the protocol. Then you need to make sure their bedding is comfortable. We combine Zeolite (you can buy it from Agring – details in the protocol) with shavings. This is important as Zeolite binds to 27 Oxygen molecules, which enables it to help with your ammonia issues. The space that they are in is 3 metres by 3 metres. I would not put more birds in that space than 225. We have a second space for the other 225 that make up our 450 birds weekly.

Note the other lighting option. Also the drinkers have changed to bell drinkers which we buy from Poltek. Ditto the tube feeders. As the birds get bigger they are able to eat and drink from these devices which are easier to handle. They also move over to this feeding system when their food changes from the starter ration to the grower ration. It is very important that the birds get starter (Day 1 to Day 10), grower (Day 11 to Day 24) and then finisher (Day 12 to the end). You are wasting money on feed if you don’t stick to this.

The shavings/Zeolite combination needs to be turned every day. This is the best tool. It is a modified garden fork.

It is very important to have these hand sanitisers at the entrance to each room as you don’t want your staff handling the birds of different ages without sterilising their hands.

The enclosures on the land are 4m x 6m. It is critical to galvanise the metal. I promise you that if you try to do this with non-galvanized metal you will end up having to throw away your rusty enclosures. We have ours made by Rouan who is available on +27 76 197 1413.

At the back of the enclosures you need the wheels above so that you can move it daily. The daily moves are critical.

This is what we have made to attach to the tractor to pull the enclosure. Daily moves ensure neither overgrazing or undergrazing. The chickens very soon learn to accompany the enclosures on their moves.

The covers are made for us by SA Shade. Best to speak to Rudi on +27 84 503 6169. Under the shadecloth is a clear plastic which keeps rain off the birds. The sides are only shadecloth. You must have the ventilation along the sides at the bottom.

The team from Hopefield Abattoir where the wonderful team under the supervision of Essie and Tyrone do the job. Essie is on +27 82 7433 566

The birds have to be inside for 3 weeks as it is only after three weeks that they have enough feathers to handle the cold night time temperatures. These birds only reach sexual maturity at 20 weeks of age which is when they will be fully feathered and considering we slaughter at 7 weeks they look slightly bedraggled.

We are increasing the prices on 4 items. Eggs, chickens, beef snapsticks and gammons.

As of the 24th of October 2017 our egg price will increase by 8.5%. This is due to two factors. 1. We increased our staff pay by 9% last month. 2. The protein source in our chicken feed is now the maggot meal from the geniuses at Agriprotein. It is more than 3 x the price of the previous protein sources.

With immediate effect our gammon price is increasing to R76 per kg from R74.10 per kg. This is due to raw material costs going up. More on our pig operation here.

With immediate effect our broiler chicken price is going up to R66.50 per kg. This is due to 4 factors. 1. The protein source in our chicken feed is now the maggot meal from the geniuses at Agriprotein. It is more than 3 x the price of the previous protein sources. 2. We have doubled our production and so have to recover our capital costs. 3. Due to being bigger we have had to hire more staff. 4. Our slaughter costs have increased.

Our beef snapsticks are going up by 20% with immediate effect. They are simply too cheap. More about our beef operation here.

30% of the egg laying hens in the Western Cape are dead. Almost all of them are laying eggs for sale as eating eggs. There is one broiler breeder farm (80,000 hens), which lays the eggs that become the broiler chicks.

There are a total of 15 commercial poultry operations countrywide that have had this attack of the H5N8 virus. Attack because if the disease does not kill all your birds, which is does in most cases, then the state veterinary rules mandate that all birds on the property must be culled.

In the Western Cape 4 laying hen operations (1 “free range” and 4 caged) have had all their hens culled. 1 broiler breeder and 1 duck farm.

We had a vet on the farm on Thursday and she culled a representative sample and fortunately we are clean. For now.

There is no proof anywhere in the world that this form of the virus affects human beings.

The outbreak started in June this year. This was upcountry. It has now spread countrywide.

It is windborne.

Our national Department of Agriculture (DAFF) announced on Friday that they will allow vaccination against this disease as it has now become an endemic disease like others such as Newcastle disease.

However it is going to be minimum of 3 months (considering the attitude of DAFF towards agriculture more like 6 months) before the vaccine gives any immunity to any birds. The vaccine needs to be approved, get to the hens, can only be given in the oil format and then takes 4 weeks before the hens are immune.

There is another way to immunise and that is on day 1 but then there are competitive exclusion issues with Marek’s disease

The biggest lie in agriculture, perpetrated by the national retailers and the poultry industry, is so called free range eggs and meat chickens. These birds are barn raised and since the outbreak have not been allowed outside their barns. It is impossible to claim that they are free range.

If our industry is to survive this avian flu drama then it is only a matter of time before a more severe disease outbreak will occur as the pressure on the poultry industry keeps increasing as this is the nature of extractive capitalism. Capitalism that results from economics having become a mathematical science instead of a historically grounded social science. When everything is reduced and compartmentalised (our education system) instead of being understood wholistically, we end up with cheap food at a high cost.

Because the egg industry is abused by the national retailers they put 96% of laying hens in cages, keep breeding them to produce more on less, ensure that their supposedly cheap diet contains the micronutrient chelator Glyphosate all of which results in weaker birds over time. If true cost accounting was practiced then we would not be in this downward spiral. True cost accounting is alien to our reductionist educational and economic system.

You have the power to change this destructive process by buying your food from regenerative farmers. We are all farmers by proxy.

I grew up on a cattle ranch in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Studied Management Accounting at Stellenbosch University before stockbroking for Goldman Sachs in London for just over four years. Declined the offer of promotion, left my job and moved to South Africa. Built a clay home with inspiration from various people on the way leading to me become a biodynamic student, grass farmer and carbon sequestrator.